Tens of thousands of people protested against right-wing extremism in Germany. According to the police, there were 150,000 demonstrators in Berlin alone. Numerous people also took to the streets in other cities.
Under the motto “We are the firewall: an alliance against the right,” numerous people are once again protesting in Berlin against right-wing extremism and the AfD. The general meeting area at the Reichstag was “fully occupied,” the police wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Please stop trying to get there.” There are “currently more than 150,000 people” in the assembly area and the alternative areas.
The organizers spoke of around 300,000 participants. 100,000 people registered. According to the police, all planned additional areas in the area have been released. The Bundestag subway station was closed, and there were large crowds at other subway and S-Bahn stations in the city center.
700 civil servants on duty
The demonstrators on the grounds in front of the Reichstag building chanted “All together against fascism” and “All of Berlin is stopping the AfD.” Slogans like “No room for racism” could be read on posters. Many of the chants and posters were specifically directed against the AfD and its representatives. According to their own information, the police had 700 officers on duty.
The alliance “Hand in Hand – Take action in solidarity now!” called for the rally. Thousands of people joined hands and raised them to the sky.
The event is aimed at right-wing extremism and is called “to defend an open and democratic society”. Political parties were not among the organizers, although many politicians took part in the rally. SPD leader Saskia Esken and Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) appeared together with a poster with the inscription: “Show the red card to Nazis”.
There were also demonstrations in other cities
There were also demonstrations in numerous other cities. According to the police, almost 25,000 people gathered in Augsburg. The crowd was so great that the town hall square was cordoned off. The adjacent streets were then opened for the demonstration so that the many people could spread out.
Thousands also demonstrated in Würzburg and other Bavarian cities. 25,000 people came together in Nuremberg, as the epd news agency reported, citing the police.
According to police reports, around 30,000 people gathered in Freiburg to protest against right-wing extremism. More than 300 organizations, including the Bundesliga soccer team SC Freiburg, trade unions and churches, called for the largest event in the country. Similar protests were also registered elsewhere – for example in Lahr, Lörrach, Wiesloch and Aalen.
According to the police, 30,000 people came to the demonstration in Freiburg.
In Hanover, according to police, more than 7,000 people peacefully formed a dense human chain around the Lower Saxony state parliament. The organizers spoke of around 10,000 participants. Signs and posters contained slogans such as “Human rights instead of right-wing people”, “Only camels vote for humps” and “Down with Nazi hell”.
Thousands of people also took to the streets in Dresden. A rally first took place on Theaterplatz, followed by a demonstration march through the old town. More than 200 organizations, institutions and initiatives from Saxony called for action under the motto “We are the firewall”. “There were 30,000 of us today,” said a spokeswoman for the alliance. The police did not provide any specific information about the number of participants.
There were also protests in many other cities. According to police reports, up to 10,000 people came together in Krefeld and Mainz. According to the organizers, more than 15,000 people took part in Saarbrücken; the police initially estimated that there were 10,000 participants.
Scholz: “Strong sign” for democracy
Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the demonstrations as a “strong signal” for democracy and the Basic Law. “Whether in Eisenach, Homburg or Berlin: In small and large cities across the country, many citizens are coming together to demonstrate against forgetting, against hatred and incitement – including this weekend,” the SPD politician wrote on X. The Chancellor himself took part in a rally in Potsdam in January.
AfD leader Tino Chrupalla, on the other hand, viewed the numerous rallies in the country as a diversionary tactic by the government. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, he said it was “legitimate to take to the streets with the government.” However, he sees an instrumentalization of the rallies by those in power: “This is of course of great use to the government to call for people to demonstrate in order to distract from the real problems.”
The protests were triggered by a report by the media company Correctiv about a meeting of radical right-wingers on November 25th in Potsdam, which was also attended by AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the very conservative ValuesUnion.